Minnesota soldiers deployed to Afghanistan

Minnesota Army Reserve soldiers will deploy to Afghanistan later this year. 140 soldiers from the Fort Snelling-based 372nd Engineer Brigade will go to Afghanistan in October as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.

The unit will first go to Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, before moving on to Afghanistan.

Captain Bill Geddes with the Army Reserve said the combat engineers will provide technical and tactical guidance and support in Afghanistan.

"This is the first mission this unit has taken on as an engineer brigade, so I know the soldiers in the unit are looking forward to the chance to get out there and go and do the mission that they trained for," Geddes said.

Geddes said the combat engineers will do a variety of technical and tactical missions while in Afghanistan.

"All of the different types of engineer operations that are going on in Afghanistan, be it mine clearing operations...building roads and those sorts of things, are going to be managed and controlled by this command," Geddes said.

This is the first time the unit has been mobilized since it was organized in November of 2007.